On May 16th I left the city of Santa Barbara for my internship located in Lakeview, Oregon. Within five minutes of arriving in Lakeview, I was already driving out of the opposing side. As you can guess, this is a very small town, a size that is unfamiliar to me. After getting over the initial shock of being trapped in a scattered population of 2,200 people in southeastern Oregon, I began to accept the beauty of small town life and the surrounding landscapes. I quickly knew this would be a wonderful learning experience, not only in the realm of Biology.
I officially started work for the Seeds of Success program at the Lakeview District BLM on Friday, May 26th. The staff and interns were extremely welcoming and I felt comfort right off the bat. After the paperwork was filled out, myself and the other intern, Kayla, were able to start learning Botany. The Botanist we are working under took us out in the field to test our knowledge and teach us about the local flora. Since the first few days at the BLM, we have collected seeds for the program, species of plants for the herbarium, and have gotten the chance to sample burn sites for RNA (Research Natural Areas).
I am excited for the great deal of knowledge and adventures in the coming months. Since I have only experienced two weeks of the internship, there will a lot more information to share in future blogs, along with photos of the town and its natural surrounding diversity.